Research Catalog

Title

The midwestern novel : literary populism from Huckleberry Finn to the present / Nancy L. Bunge.

Author

Bunge, Nancy L.

Publication

Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2015]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

vii, 200 pages; 23 cm

Summary

With Huckleberry Finn, American fiction changed radically and shifted its setting to the middle of the country. A focus on social issues replaced the philosophic and psychological explorations that dominated the work of Melville and Hawthorne. Colloquial speech rather than elevated language articulated these fresh ideas, while common folk rather than dramatic characters like Ahab and Hester Prynne played central roles. This transformation of American literature has been largely ignored, while during the 130 years since Huckleberry Finn the Midwest has continued to produce writers whose work, like Twain's, addresses injustice by portraying the decency of ordinary people. Since the end of the 19th century, Midwestern authors have dismissed the elite and celebrated those whom the power structure typically excludes: children, women, African-Americans and the lower classes. Instead of wealth and power, this literature values authenticity and compassion. The book explores this literary tradition by examining the work of 30 Midwestern writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Richard Wright, Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, Jonathan Franzen, Jane Smiley and Louise Erdrich. -- Provided by publisher.

Subject

• 1900 - 1999
• Populism in literature
• American fiction > Middle West > History and criticism
• American fiction > 20th century > History and criticism
• American fiction
• Literature
• Middle West > In literature
• Middle West

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-192) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- Conformity's consequences -- The redemptive potential of childhood -- Valuing women's passion -- The African-American dimension -- Surrendering to nature -- Relaxing into compassion.

ISBN

• 9780786494354 (softcover : acid-free paper)
• 0786494352 (softcover : acid-free paper)
• 9781476617855 (ebook) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

^^2014039327

OCLC

881440609

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library